January

CARACAS, Venezuela – Venezuela received its first shipment of 525,000 barrels of oil from Brazil to help relieve the shortages because of a strike against President Hugo Chavez and the Venezuelan Constitution.

Retreating under intense pressure from South Korea, China and Japan, the Bush administration announced Jan. 7 that they are willing to hold face-to-face talks with government leaders of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK).

Human Rights Watch (HRW) released three reports detailing the harm of the U.S. occupation of Afghanistan. “Fatally Flawed: Cluster Bombs and Their Use by the United States in Afghanistan,” exposes civilian casualties caused by cluster bombs.

TEL AVIV – The double suicide attack that killed at least 23 people, mostly guest workers, and wounded about 100, at a crowded downtown street corner here, has in one stroke diverted public focus from the deepening election scandal involving Prime Minister Sharon’s Likud Party in ballot-rigging, bribery and corruption.